Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the area of man machine interface, and more particularly related to method and system for creating and updating a booklet with audio comments and marks, where the booklet may be shared with another user or among a circle of contacts over a data network (e.g., the Internet).
Description of the Related Art
The Internet is a data communication network of interconnected computers and computer networks around the world and has been rapidly evolving to the point where it combines elements of telecommunications, computing, broadcasting, publishing, commerce, and information services into a revolutionary new business infrastructure. The economy on the Internet is growing in every aspect of life, from buying small items (e.g., stationary) to big items (e.g., vehicles and houses) to trading stocks and ordering services, all via the Internet.
The Internet is being relied upon as a medium for various communications, including audio, video, email and fax. Communications may be conducted synchronously or asynchronously. Synchronous communication requires that both parties must be present at the time of the communication while asynchronous communication does not have such a requirement. For example, telephone is one type of synchronous communication while email is one type of asynchronous communication.
Asynchronous communication, including various discussion boards, blogging, and text messaging over the Internet, is becoming popular as it does not require both parties to be present when the communication takes place. Most of these asynchronous communication tools are meant to convey a subject or an idea in an electronic message. For example, as part of the asynchronous communication, electronic instructions provided by a business over the Internet can be accessed by a user whenever the user has time.
Such communication without two parties being present, however, requires clear and non-confusing expressions, otherwise a late-joined party would have no immediate way to clarify possible misunderstanding. In the domain of asynchronous communications, messages including images/video with audio are often used to illustrate a point or an idea. For example, www.youtube.com provides many installation guides in video and images. Unless it is a simple procedure involving few parts, an image-based instruction would not help much as an novice user sometime cannot even find a particular part in the image to follow along the instructions. Thus there is a great need for new ways to convey an idea in electronic message.
Further the current approach makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to modify what is received. For example, many businesses deliver electronic manuals to their customers (e.g., downloadable or in a CD). Although a manual can be accessed anytime, a consumer has to follow up a provided manual even when there are confusing instructions in the manual. The consumer has no way to help update the manual if he/she desires to do so. Thus there is another need for a mechanism for a recipient to modify what is received electronically. Other needs will become apparent upon examining the following detailed description of the present invention.